Major Quake Shakes Central Philippines, Kills at Least 67

MANILA, Philippines — A powerful earthquake measuring 7.2 struck islands popular with tourists in the Philippines on Tuesday, killing at least 67 people, some as they prayed in a centuries-old church, and causing widespread damage to infrastructure, officials said.

Low-rise buildings collapsed on at least two islands and historic churches cracked and crumbled during the quake, which sparked panic, cut power and transport links and forced hospitals to evacuate patients.

At least 57 people died in collapsed structures and landslides on the island of Bohol, about 630 kilometers (390 miles) south of the capital, Rey Balido, spokesman for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), told a briefing at army headquarters

He said nine others died in Cebu and another on Siquijor island. Nearly 170 were wounded on Cebu and Bohol islands.

President Benigno Aquino said he would visit earthquake-damaged areas on Wednesday. "Many of the structures there are old," he told reporters after attending the briefing.

The death toll looks bound to rise. Dennis Agustin, Bohol provincial police director, said in a radio interview as many as 77 people had died in 11 towns on the island, much of which was left without power and communications.

Four bridges collapsed and roads cracked, with many declared impassable due to landslides, prompting the authorities to declare a state of calamity in the province, along with Cebu.

Renato Solidum, head of the state seismology agency, said the magnitude 7.2 tremor had struck near Carmen town on Bohol island at 8:12 a.m.

"A magnitude 7 earthquake has energy equivalent to around 32 Hiroshima atomic bombs. Compared to the 2010 Haiti earthquake — that had a magnitude of 7.0, this one had a magnitude of 7.2, slightly stronger," he told a news conference.

The volcanology agency said it was measured at a depth of about 56 km (35 miles).

GIRL DIES IN STAMPEDE

Hospitals moved patients to open spaces as aftershocks rocked Cebu, a city of about 870,000 people.

The NDRRMC's Balido said at least eight people who had been queuing for government aid payments in Cebu were hurt in a stampede sparked by the earthquake. A four-year-old girl was among them, said Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman.

Archbishop Leonardo Medroso of Tagbilaran city in Bohol said two people were killed by falling debris as they were praying in a church in the town of Loon. The church, Bohol's biggest, dates from 1753.

He said a church in Loboc town was also damaged and that both were designated historical treasures. The belfry of the church in Baclayon, one of the oldest in Bohol province, had crumbled and its facade was cracked.

"The quake was really strong. I am 75 years old already, I have undergone so many earthquakes, but this is the strongest I have experienced," he told Philippine television.

Television showed that the belfry of the Basilica Minore del Sto. Nino de Cebu, which was built in the 1700s, had collapsed.

Airline Cebu Pacific canceled flights to Cebu and Bohol due to the aftershocks and damage to airports. Ferry services were also suspended.

Television showed the collapsed viewing deck of Bohol's most famous tourist attraction, the Chocolate Hills in Carmen town, which is at the epicenter of the quake.

There were no reports of any foreign tourists among the casualties.

The volcanology agency said it had recorded nearly 300 aftershocks as of 5 p.m.

Strong earthquakes are common in the central Philippines.

Tens of thousands of people were ordered from their homes when a tsunami warning was issued after an undersea quake in the region in September 2012. One person was killed in that quake, which resulted in only minor damage and small waves.